In this November 2012 interview, MAJ Thomas Patterson, US Army, Logistics discusses his deployment with the 3d ACR in the Regimental Material Management Center (RMMC) managing all of the Class IX repair parts for the regiment from April of 2003 to January of 2004 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). MAJ Patterson talks about his mission of monitoring the regiment's readiness for both the ground and aviation fleets. He describes some of the maintenance issues with helicopters and the up-armoring of HMMWV in response to the increasing IED threat. He shares a specific memory of surviving an IED attack on his convoy. MAJ Patterson closes his interview by stating, "Lesson learned is try to focus on the importance of learning the [communications] systems and not just that some sergeant is going to do it or some specialist. Because when you're that convoy commander and you're the one operating the MTS and that is your form of communication, because now you are outside of radio. You know who to send an MTS message and that is it, you are probably set up for failure at that point."

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